Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'PS3'.
-
So I got this a bit ago when it was on sale. I wanted a fighting game to see me through to SFV, and I've also wanted to get somewhat adequate at Anime Fighters (a sub-genre, not necessarily fighting games based on animes; just ones that are execution heavy and have air dashing and stuff in them (some say even Marvel Vs Capcom is an Anime Fighter)). And it has been working. Thanks to playing this a little my SFV is a lot more confidently aggressive than my SFIV... but this shouldn't be about that. What is BlazBlue like? It's really fucking complicated; more so than I remember. I did play the very first iteration of BlazBlue and had an okay time but I only played it a little and I wasn't as versed in this shit as I am now. Now I just see fucking madness when I try to understand it. This game is made by Arc Systems Works: they're really cool and insane, and they put air dashing in everything, as well as multiple gauges and systems in games you remember being much simpler. I love this stuff, but put in fast action games I just can't keep up. I try, but it oftentimes doesn't work out. I dunno where to start explaining how this shit works. I guess basically you have an 'Overdrive' gauge that fills up quite rapidly where you can either use it to make your special moves more powerful or use it to break combos if you have the rotten luck of playing against someone who knows how to play this game. You also have a multitude of special moves: a general one, the general one while in 'Overdrive' and a special one you can instakill with only under certain conditions. You have to do so much reading while fighting here; scanning all the bars and meters, knowing what it all means and what you can do while you have some anime folk air dashing around. It's very overwhelming. And on top of that the characters are really different. They're not Guilty Gear different (another Arc Systems Works game for those that think BlazBlue is too easy) but they do have their own unique mechanics. This is something SFV does as well and I imagine they've been copying Arc Systems' homework but doing it in a much more manageable way for the layman. Basically you have some characters that use different kinds of traps to play that way, or people who have complex but very effective mobility if you can 'get' it, there is a girl that homes in like a 3D game Sonic... etc... it's full of character unique mechanics. I've not scratched the surface myself. But overall it is just fun to play. There is a lot to discover in this mess and I will be slowly using it to help me 'git good' at fighting games generally. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to most folk. If you want something like this get Persona Arena. It's this kinda fun but for normal people.
-
This was on sale for about a fiver last week, it might still be? Anyway you start off and everything's white, you can't see anything, you splat paint all over the place so you can see stuff and find your way around, it's a nice effect, I expected the rest of the game to be the same and think i would have been ok with that, but it's constantly changing, and it's only short, about 4 hours I'd guess, so nothing has time to get old. At times it looks amazing, it has a sort of clean mirrors edge look to it. It's also more gamey than something like journey, although exploration is part of it, there's also puzzles and stuff. I really enjoyed it, it's something a bit different and really well done IMO. The paint balls are odd, the animation makes it look like they're going really far but they barely go anywhere. And it made me feel a little sick occasionally, but not too bad. They're the only slightly bad things I can think to say about it.
-
Yea, it does look fantastic huh? I worry about how long it will stay fun though. Ive also played up to the second Devastator fight and it's very samey. My only other gripe so far was when I was chasing Megatron as a vehicle, I could really have used a fixed camera point instead of having to do the camera as well as steer, dodge and attack. Took a bit of the fun away. Fuck me there are some stats as well, weapons and equipment and synthesis and investing in tech, it always takes a while for this shit to sink in to my stupid brain. But so far it's pretty god damn fun. Onwards!
-
After finishing the last Lego game I played (whatever it was) I swore i'd never play another Lego game again. Then I bought this one in the sales (ages ago). I'm glad i'm an idiot that just buys anything for cheap because this is bloody good. Definately for fans of LOTR though, not exclusively but you'll get a lot more enjoyment from the game if you love the world it's set in. The puzzles are genuinely enjoyable, not once have I felt like i'm just playing to get through the levels like I have in previous games. It's full of usual Travellers Tales humour, both in the gameplay and the cut scenes. Oh, the cut scenes. Ones I actually dont mind watching (which is lucky as in Story Mode they are unskippable), a lot of though has gone in to them , they use sound bites from the films that brings them to life. The entire musical score is from the films too which adds to the atmosphere immensly - love that music. So yeah, super impressed especially as my expectations were so low. I think i have two more missions before Story Mode is complete. You can then go through in Free Play and mop up all the collectables, that's possibly where the fun may run out for me but I can't complain at what I've got out of a game that I paid less than £4 for.
-
For those that dont know... Guitar Hero is back... and its Live! Most pressing, the fucking buttons have changed, they've changed the fucking buttons. Gone are the five colours in a row. Now they're all the same colour, theres six of them - 3 at the top and three directly underneath. In theory this is easier but my brain doesnt work that way yet. They symbols are obviously different as there are no colours to match them with so you have plectrum shaped icons that are either black or white. Black are the top three, white are the bottom. You can also power chord by hitting top and bottom together. Ive gone from half decent to being a bit shit again but I spent an hour and a half practicing last night and i was getting better, i was able to do two quick notes on the top and a note on the bottom then switch back up to the top (then power chord) relitively pain free. Still, when it gets fast I was fucking up here and there. So it's a long road ahead to re-learn shit to a point where your brain just does it for you but I am enjoying the experience thus far. The two main modes of gameplay are Live and TV. Live is career mode, you play as part of a 'real' band to a 'live' crowd and jolly on through becoming more awesome and visiting bigger venues getting all famous and shit, same old story. TV is a bit different. TV is a constantly broadcasting network of channels that you can hop on to at any time and play track. It's like an interactive MTV channel, but here there are about 10 channels showcasing different types of music that you can flick between. There are always people to play against wether they are online or offline, I guess it just selects people around your skill level and you have to try and beat their score. The higher you finish the more exp and coins you get, the exp is for leveling up and unlocking skills you can upgrade (i've no idea what these are yet, im level 6 and you unlock your first skill at level 9) and coins are for buying 'plays'. The game did explain what this entails but i didnt read it or listen to be honest and it hasen't really affected me so far so fuck it, I'll find out what it is later. Look, amongst all this shit is Guitar Hero. I just wanted to play Guitar Hero again. And I am. And it's good fun.
-
I think some others have been playing this. Any thoughts. I think I quite like it so far but it doesn't feel as sturdy as Ridiculous Fishing or Luftrausers (other Vlambeer games) but I put that down to this being made in Game Maker. It feels like some production values are missing. But that's my only gripe, really. It's some good shooty fun with solid action and loads of Vlambeer screen shake. It's one of those games that has Rogue elements in it except this is a top down dual stick shooter. There are randomly generated levels though the themes are always the same and the same bosses always turn up. You have a bunch of characters to unlock that have different properties. It's a simple enough game. It is hard, though. I've got to the point where I can pretty confidently go through section 3 but I can't get past 4-1. I just get destroyed by the sentient crystals that fire lasers pretty rapidly. I tend to use the purple crystal dude who has more health and can throw up a brief reflective shield. I reckon he is a newb character but this game is pretty hard so I have no shame using him. I've been mostly playing it on the Vita, usually before work for 20 mins as it is pretty pick up and play. It's like Galak-Z in some ways except that is more complicated and does require longer sessions but I think they compliment each other well.
-
Surprised there was no thread for this already. A few people told me how good this was, so I was at a lose end tonight and decided to download it. It was a good decision. The Walking Dead is based on The Walking Dead comics and is a point and click adventure. However, it rips off a few things from other games and adds some new stuff on top. The stuff that's ripped off comes right out of Mass Effect and games of that ilk in where you have an either/or situation or conversation tree which effects what will happen further down the line. It's basically a branching story of which will evolve to your particular choices as you play. Replies to characters in game are mapped to a face button, and while some are timed in others where you are not in control of the situation, there are others that allow you to take your time and pick wisely what you want to say. The new thing that has been brought to the table is context sensitive combat. Now this sounds horrible, but they actually made it like an interactive qte, as in you actually have more control over what happens, but the effects of the qte are always the same, or at least I think they are. Outside of combat qtes, the left stick controls your character and the right stick controls the 4 points cursor, with each point signifying an action on the d-pad. These actions range from observing items, talking to people and interacting with stuff. It's a simple yet elegant set up. The whole shebang is wrapped up in some very nice celshaded graphics that harp back to the comic origins of the series. The way the story is acted out ranges from excellent to a bit choppy, but it's more of the excellent side than the crappy. The sound effects are quite good too, it looks as the whole package has had a lot of thought put into it. I particularly liked the attention to detail on one of the neon lights trying to hawk cola onto people, it's stuff like that that is prevalent here in the south of the USA. It's full of little design touches like this. Either they researched that sort of stuff or some people on the team have lived in the areas they have portrayed here in the game. Other than that, I can't really say much without spoiling the game or soiling the experience, as it's something you played maybe once or twice and then be done with. It's 400 points and is the first of five episodes that will be released. I have no idea when the new episodes will drop, but I'm looking forward to them The episode is quite short, I think I finished it in about 2 1/2 hours, although I think I missed a puzzle. I'm not sure though, it could have just been a dead end, I did look about to see if I could complete it but the game sort of pushed me right towards the end once I past a certain point. A nice touch is that right at the end it tells you what decisions other people made and how you aligned yourself within these decision. Maybe when/if the thread takes off we can talk about it all in spoilers, there's not much point me talking about it until a few other people have played and completed the game. Anyone else played it or interested in it? Click to get the demo Click to buy the game
-
Despite this game being just awful I was still getting a bit of enjoyment out of it, that is until I hit a bit of a wall with it and I had enough. It's a very hard game to like. I'm astounded that when this game was made it still turned out the way it did. Early on one Japanese developers started using the Unreal engine at the start of last gen there were some games with poor performance. I heard instructions on how to use Unreal were never translated into Japanese so most just blundered through with trial and error. This game seems like no-one told them what had been learned so far. It has some horrible graphics with a very choppy frame rate that can be an eyesore when trying to track the action in a third person hack 'n' slash. It's also not very responsive. There is a countering system that I barely used due to a bad camera that made it hard to see where attacks were coming from as well as the previously mentioned choppy frame rate. You can fudge your way through the combat since it does have RPG elements that make it possible to grind experience, money and materials to upgrade yourself and your weapons and just plow through that way. It's pretty bad in a way I've not seen in a long time. Special mention also goes to the large enemies that aren't clear to read and have moves that are hard to dodge, and deal loads of damage, and take loads of damage. They are the worst. So why did I stay with it as long as I did? Well, everything else is really good. As bad as the graphics are they are just functional enough to create a good sense of place which is heavily amplified by the music. For those that don't know it's the same composer from NieR, and some of the leads from that worked on this, and you can tell. It's not as good but it does follow those lines well. It's a strange one. As for what you do you are a lady called Zero and you are tasked with killing your sisters (One, Two, Three, Four and Five) with the help of your pet dragon who has the personality of a little, naive boy. The sisters all have male disciples you get when you defeat them. So kill sisters and get their boyfriends. Despite being very violent and often melancholic it does also throw in a lot of smutty humour but it does it with a brashness that does come off pretty well and there are laughs to be had (unlike when a lot of nerdy stuff tries sex humour). It juggles those three things well. There are some subtle character arcs in Zero and her boyfriends, too. It's just a shame that it is tied to a game that is difficult to forgive. I'd be okay with it if the action was a bit tighter and it performed more stably as it's a bit of a head ache to see through to the good stuff. But I'm still glad I played it. I wouldn't recommend it.
-
400 quid on a new system and my favourite thing on it is a ten quid game I could've bought on the PS3 and did buy on my iPad. This video - http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-counterspy/2300-9358/ - sold me on it. I didn't realise it was on PS3 so I got it on iPad and, well, it doesn't control great on a touch screen. It's all swipes and gestures and too easy to do things you don't intend. So I got the PS4 version knowing that the game has a rather cool feature in that you can sync your progress across from mobile to console and back again. So the couple of hours I put in on iPad weren't in vain. The art style is pretty cool, it's like Team Fortress 2 but side-on. It takes the piss out of both Russia and America and the ridiculousness of the Cold War - both sides are in a race to blow up the Moon with nukes. Why? Because. Before each level you pick which side you want to go against for that mission (CounterSpy is a third party organisation, trying to stop both super powers), taking into account which bonuses you can pick up. Then you go through taking out soldiers, finding money, articles, mission plans, weapon plans and perk plans. You can use up to 3 perks in a level and the most useful ones I used all the time was one to bring the a Defcon level down one each time and one to make your shots take out armoured guards and cameras. The weapons are pretty smart too - silenced pistol is a must, plus a dart gun that makes enemies turn against his mates and take them out. Ultra useful when surrounded by a massive pack of cunts. The snag for these great weapons and perks though is you have to unlock them eventually by picking up pieces in the levels so you'll start off with nothing interesting at first. Grinding isn't a chore though because the levels are all randomly generated and they're still all pretty short. Longest level I've played is maybe 15 minutes long, depending on your style of play. Though I wouldn't really advise all guns blazing. It's an option, but the game is really geared towards stealthy play. I don't like writing too much so I'll leave it there but well worth a tenner. Though I'm sure it'll come to PS+ down the line.
-
This is out on pretty much everything right now, bar the 360 I think. It's a bit of a Rogue-like (or lite) 2D platformer so a bit like Spelunky. But also stealthy so a bit like Mark of the Ninja. You have 100 days to build up your abilities to pull off the final heist. Each heist makes a day tick down, each time you die another burglar takes their place and also takes a day off. When that burglar does, the abilities and money banked remains but money collected in the run gone wrong will get lost. It's good fun so far (I've got about 20 or 30 days in) but I've had some horrendous runs where I've fucked up badly about 10 times in a row so will probably start from scratch a few times before I see the 100th day. I was struggling at first until I watched this video with the developer: What I learned is that the basic hacking is the first thing you can afford, and you should buy that rather than try and save up for other things first. The money needed for most upgrades is obscene at first but you start off only able to rob from poor people and so the money you get out will be low to begin with. But on the other hand, security in the poor areas is quite basic so it's easier to rinse them out. Until the game recognises you're doing well and starts throwing more stuff your way, like mines, tougher enemies, etc. The best thing I learnt for myself when I was playing yesterday was to shut the doors rather than leave them open, so you can control where the enemies will go better. The art style is pretty great and the procedurally generated Victorian style names are superb.
-
Been playing this alot recently. Made me a custom character then set off to becomes the world numero uno, training hard to get my stats to a respectable level and winning tournaments here and there to boost my world ranking. The higher your ranking, the more lucrative the tournaments become. You know your getting somewhere when the Grand Slams start to open up, place well in these and you are invited to the King of Players tournament where you get a shot at the top seed, filthy Federer with his cheating tennis style. Training comes in the form of The Academy where your asked to do ridiculous things to boost your stats. You can also take part in a series of mini games that appear dotted around the world map, like knocking down skittles a la bowling to improve your serve, hitting down walls of oil drums to strengthen your groundstrokes. Its addictive stuff, a feint interest in tennis helps. Not one for the angry gamer tho, im currently nursing a nasty gash on one of my knuckles after punching my pad following an super fucking irritating loss to Fed-arse-rer, the cunt. He can return anything from anywhere whenever he wants and he does it perfectly. I nearly shit myself when i finally beat the bastard. Decent online aswell, played some random chimp and kicked his ass, looking forward to playing someone on here? Hendo?
-
So, I know this probably won't be a popular thread, but I started playing this on Saturday and thought I'd create this to jot my thoughts down. As a general rule with the LEGO games I try not to play too many too quickly, as I feel the repetitious copy n' paste nature of the games and the way they're designed would condemn me to tedium if I played some back to back, its been quite a while since I last played one actually, the last I played was the excellent LEGO Marvel Superheroes on my PS4 back in the Winter of 2013 when it had just come out, really enjoyed that, and the only previous LEGO game I'd played before that was the equally excellent LEGO City Undercover on the Wii U. I dabbled in LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Star Wars back in the day but never really enjoyed them until I played City Undercover on the Wii U, the humour, the city and the gameplay really clicked with me in that game and I ended up enjoying it FAR more than I ever imagined I would. Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent here, needless to say, LEGO Jurassic World is the first LEGO game I've played in quite a while, as a massive fan of the Jurassic Park franchise it always seemed like a no brainer to pick it up, I think the LEGO games resonate the most with you if you're a fan of the subject matter in the game so I thought it would probably be a reasonable assumption that I'd like this if I bought it, and....4 hours in, that assumption seems to be correct. In LJW you get the chance to play through all 4 films in the series, however, only JP and JW are unlocked from the start. Being the JP fan that I am, I wanted to start back with the original JW, after I was done with this I moved onto the slightly maligned 'The Lost World:Jurassic Park' which struggles to live upto the heights of its predecessor, but is still a pretty good film in its own right. I think for anyone that's a fan of the films, you'll love this game. From John Williams' spellbinding score to some of the original actors' voices being included in the game, everything feels like an authentic JP experience, just in LEGO. Whilst I've a relatively short history with the LEGO games I've noticed in the 4 hours I've spent with this that there doesn't seem to be too many puzzles anymore, in Indiana Jones, SW, LCU and LMS I would find myself getting stuck on the odd occasion, not knowing which gadget/ability I needed to use a specific point in a level, and where to use it, but everything seems really straightforward in this, they seem to have taken out any difficulty the puzzle-elements of the game had, the other new addition is playable Dinosaurs, and yes they're as cool as they sound! The playable characters definitely aren't as memorable as the ones in LMS though, that's for sure, I was struggling to remember who some of the peripheral characters you can play as in the game were, obviously the main characters through all 4 films are recognisable, but beyond this I had no recollection who some of them were, a far cry from the spades of recognisable characters in LMS. So, yeah, just wanted to give a few thoughts on my opening 4 hours with the game, don't expect anyone else picked this up, but its been pretty cool so far, a nice relaxed easy going game that should keep me occupied for a few days, but nothing more.
-
Well no-one else will so I'll start a topic. I'm very early on, done the mission for the doctor which turns a little "odd". I'm always running out of space in my wallet and my crafting pouch so I'm gonna have to take some time out of the main quest to make some bigger pouches. Having seen what the PC version looks like, the 360 version is definitely poorer visually but it's still passable.
-
I have been playing this for the last few days and it excellent. The levels are semi-open with different paths you can take and hidden areas with collectables. Strider also has multiple difficulty settings that adds replay value to the game. The visuals are great and Double Heilx also included scanlines which was a nice touch. The gameplay is flawless and just makes you feel like a badass. You can unlock new moves by defeating bosses. Double Helix did not stray too far for the original source material and the bosses from the original game are back and tweaked for the modern era of gaming. Out of all the games I own on Xbox One Strider will most likely be a permanent fixture on my HDD. This is how remakes should be done in my opinion. Too bad Double Heilx is now apart of Amazon, they would have been a great fit as an internal Capcom or Microsoft studio.
-
Old/New Dreamcast game anyone? Its a helicoptor shooter. Its not bullet hell. It only has five stages, then repeats the stages by mirroring. Its oddly addictive. Unlike most shooters these days it doesnt start out with infinite credits, these are earned by playtime. Every hour another continue is rewarded untill you go past 9 credits, then it unlocks free play. Umm... score wise it seems best to use your 'option', of which there are 3 types, Vulcan (machine gun), Cannon (slow but powerful) and Rocket (not always accurate but pretty much fucks up everything it touches). Enemies killed by the option are worth alot more points. The option can be released by pressing the fire button after a small period of bullet inactivity (measured by a gauge on screen). Obviously whilst charging your option you are left pretty exposed, having to dodge enemy bullets and risking letting the screen fill up with more bad guys. Ive finished it now but i cant say i ever fell in love with it. The bullets can be a little hard to see and the chopper can be a little clunky but i think it boils down to the fact that ive been spoiled by Futari, ESP and Deathsmiles with their vivid colour schemes and screen after screen of bullets. This is bland in comparison. Not unenjoayable, just ditincly average. Decent soundtrack though.
-
Looks amazing! I started off with my laptop plugged into the TV but it looks noticeably better on the laptop so am playing with that on a chair in front of me, using the pad. I did a benchmark test beforehand and medium is the best option for me. Still looks great although there have been a bit of screen-tearing and stuff. Anyway! I've arrived at Columbia and am really taking my time basking in everything around me. The main benefit of playing on a PC is that I'm taking screenshots like a motherfucker. Anyone who has me on Facebook, I've made an album with some of my favourite shots there. It's early days, but it has set up the reason for you being there and the mindset of the people of Columbia. Very reminiscent of the original Bioshock with your arrival, picking up cash, etc. Glorious.
-
Yep, that big new release everyone is talking about It's a motorbike game, which will probably be news to some of you, and it's by the people that do the MotoGP games. I can't tell a huge amount of difference between the 2 but then I'm not really an expert. It's kind of focused on buying bikes. You earn credits for winning, and you can upgrade your bike, but you'll be locked out of certain classes until you buy more. Other than that it's fairly open, if you can afford a superbike then there's nothing stopping you buying one and playing those events. The one bit of structure is the world ranking, a ladder to climb by finishing races. The ultimate aim is to get to rank 1, but along the way you'll hit certain milestones that will open up Elite races. These will reward you with a new bike, although usually you have to buy a bike to enter them, which you then spend money improving, meaning you never touch the new bike you won Here's a video I done. The mic is a bit blown out because it was recorded by the capture kit directly when it shouldn't have been
-
So picked this up yesterday and have played about 10 hours so far and it is somewhat enjoyable so far. To give people a quick overview, this is an mmo which is available for Xbox, ps3 and PC. It plays like a third person shooter and the best part is you don't have to pay a subscription! So my initial thoughts are; it a bit rough around the edges, being less than a week old it has a lot of the faults most new mmo's have. Slow frame rates during highly populated moments (such as the ark falls) and graphics quality is generally dictated by Internet speed (at least it appears to be, it's generally ok but gears of war it ain't) The parts I am really enjoying so far is the loose nature of it all, there are lots of missions to do and the fact that they link up with the coming tv show adds that little extra to the whole thing. As events occur in the tv show they also take place in the game as episodic quests. I can foresee a compulsive need to keep up with the content changes as they happen. So I am wondering, does anyone else have this? Or is anyone considering picking it up? Because this is the type of game that really needs a party up to enjoy to the fullest. Would be cool to get a clan going.
-
So, I genuinely wasn't expecting much from this game, what with it's troubled history. 17 hours later, and it's one of the best games of 2012. A lot of reviews claim "it's nearly as good as GTA!", which to be honest isn't far off the mark. The combat's a bit like Batman AA (one button to punch, another to counter), you can hit people with a fish or shove them face first into a fan blade. There's Collectables to find, though for once (a) they improve your stats instead of doing nothing, and ( once you complete specific side missions, they all appear on your map so you can collect them at your lesuire. Every open world game could do with "borrowing" that idea. So yeah, it's a brilliant game. And it's high sales are a big middle finger to Activision. Which is always a good thing.
-
Been playing Arcana Heart 3 all week, It's a 2d fighter, kind of a mix of tone, so there's characters who play very straight, like Terry usually, but then there's someone who fights inside a bubble, someone who rides a wolf, a girl who's imaginary friend comes to life and fights for her, a demon who drags a little girl around The same is true of the gameplay too, there's loads of systems, cancels, clever ways to chain combos, but equally you can bounce people off walls, bounce people off walls, double jump, almost constantly use supers. It's a strange game You don't just pick a character, you also pick an Arcana, a god of sorts. They don't fight alongside you, however they do have their own move set you can tap in to, and when you activate their boost ability your character gets a speed increase, stat boosts and access to more powerful moves. There's little restriction to using their moves in battle, it's a good way to get a projectile move for example, however their boost and supers drain the meter which usually refills pretty quick What makes it stand out I guess is that all the characters (apart from imaginary friends and the like) are women/girls. It's actually, for the most part, handled pretty well, nothing too internet ire raising. I say for the most part, because there's an after story mode that is all about getting the girls to a hot spring, and your reward is a steamy picture of them spashing about that you have to clear. As these things go though I guess it's pretty tame, Anyway, it's pretty good the penultimate boss is cheap as shit, so I've only completed it a couple of times, but oh well. I did a gameplay video to test out the capture kit too
-
This is the new one from Vlambeer, the Super Crate Box and Ridiculous Fishing folks. You're lucky I'm here telling you about it because I have been pounding this game the last 24 hours. It's an arcade shooter in the style of Asteroids but there is so much more going on. The enemies are cunts, there are bullets everywhere and you have loads of types of plane that can massively change how you play. The playing field is leveled by you having regen health when you're not firing, but it's really easy to get caught out when trying to get one guy on your tail; it's one of those risk/reward mechanics done really well which I think Vlambeer have a really good hold on, what with this and Ridiculous Fishing. And then there is the plane building thing. Planes atre made up of three bits and there are about six of each which can be combo'd together in any way: there are laser guns, homing rockets, high impact armour, a body that automatically drops bombs, an engine that lets you go under water with taking damage and stuff like that. I feel like some combos are just plain useless (lol) but there are missions attached to (like kill so many fighters, or sink a ship while maintaining max combo) so it's worth seeing what you can do with the dumb combos even if you're not ever likely to get your high score. And it's probably more about doing these missions than getting the best score, it's the thing that keeps you coming back more (though I have a pretty sweet score ) But that's just all guff. It just feels real nice to play. The speed, the responsiveness, just how it's all balanced in how much punishment you can take, all the acrobatics you can do that aren't hard to pull off; it's just a real nice feeling game and polished to a shine. Get it, it's ace.
-
This is a game based on a Nickelodeon TV show, and not a hugely successful one, but Activision called up premier action game creators, Platinum Games, and asked them if they'd make a game based on this property... and they did. There is no doubt that this game is 'A Job' for Platinum. They're a working studio like a lot of Japanese developers and they gotta make money to keep their heads above water. So I understand the decission to make this game. And while the game isn't really that remarkable, it does have the elements you'd expect from a game from this studio. It's tight (not Bayonetta tight, but I'd say as tight as Revengeance), it makes you work that controller, and it's damn tough (I've seen folk say it's easy... they're psychos talking bollocks... it's pretty hard for normal folk). It's a good, solid, salt of the Earth action game. But that's about it. There is very little flash in the game. No crazy cutscenes and boss battles that have mind boggling stuff penetrating your eyeballs or anything like that. Even the environments will make memories of low budget PS2 action games come flooding to mind. There isn't even much varity in the enemy types. But this is a £12 downloadable title so concessions obviously have to made. I'd also say it's not Platinums top tier personel working on it as it does seem to be a game working from a Platinum text book, if one exists... especially the chapter marked Metal Gear: Revengeance. But let me tell you about what this game actually does. It's a brawler, obviously, and in the lore of the show there is a person called The Avatar who can weild all four elements: water, wind, earth and fire. Some can weild one, but only The Avatar can wirld all four, and that's you. You can do that. And that's the base of the gameplay. Each element is also tied to a fighting style: water is kinda ranged (think those disc things from El Shaddai), fire is quick strikes, earth is slower and more deliberate, and wind is pretty much an area attack kinda thing. You also have a counter move with some tight timing, and a safer but not as fun dodge. And you use those to fight a variety of differnt guys. The end. Oh and there is a bit where you ride a butch labrador which is basically Temple Run but through the eyes of Platinum... it's kinda cool. Despite it being text book and quite no thrills I am actually quite fond of it. It's coming from a text book I personally like a whole lot, and I'm finding it's low key presentation appealing, in a way. It's like there is a confidence in itself that is nice to see. It's plays a good game of hitting stuff. It's hard to recommend now, what with Bayonetta 2 (and 1) out this week, too, but if you like this kinda stuff then deffo get it on sale sometime.
-
Hohokum is one of those video games that gets caught up in the debate of 'oh, but is it a video game' and I really hate that debate... well, I don't hate it, I just don't think it matters. Is it a virtual thing you interact and have fun/dramatic/entetrtaining times with? well, sir/madam, that is a video game. So with that sorted, let me tell you a bit about Hohokum. In Hohokum you are a one eyed snake (lol) and you whizz around this strange world full of colourful characters living their wee lives and you have to help them out. The reason you gotta help them out is because other one eyed snakes are trapped and you have to rescue them, and they're stuck in unexpected places. You have to decipher the world and try and figure out where they are hidden. It's hard to explain the game without namechecking others so that's what I'm going to do. So think: Fez Nobi Nobi Boy Animal Crossing. Fez comes to me because becuase it's a game with no hand holding. You're left to go and explore and you have to figure out the problems yourslef. I wouldn't even say the problems are that hard to solve, but when you have a game so full of stuff (cool stuff, mind) it can be hard find them. In fact I found them by stumbling into them, and only in hindsight do I see why. That takes me to Nobi Nobi Boy. To me, that game was just fun to interact with; it was a game that was fun to see what would happen if you did such and such. A few games do that but it's usually based around violence, but this was cute stuff. Hohokum has that too. As well as that I like how the game feels to play, in the way you move. It has a real nice feeling inertia to it, and I also discovered how to move really quickly in it by fluttering the L and R buttons to snake at high speeds through the level. There is so much nuance to the movement, I love it. And the reason it makes me think of Animal Crossing is that it just has that simple satisfaction fo doing simple things for people. Get wee man to a certain place and a cool thingy will happen; get wine to the peole and such and such will happen. It's just full of simple rewards for trivial stuff, but it's fun because of just how the game feels to play. Obviously, it's one of those games that are hard to decribe, but I tried my best here. I think I'd recomend it to anyone who like at least two of the games I'd mentioned.
-
So this is free on the PS+ at the moment so I'm giving some impressions for you all. It's Dead or Alive again to be honest. That's it. The combat system remains pretty much unchanged. I took my old main, Ayane, into a few fights and I was instantly in a place where I knew exactly what i was doing so little has changed. If you want a crash course in Dead or Alive then all you need to know is the rock, paper, scissors type mechanics. If someone is spamming you with hits then use the counters, if someone is countering use those throws while they are in the counter animation, and if someone is throwing a lot then use strikes on them which are quicker to hit. That's the basics, and understanding the nuances of each combo and character fleshes that out more and there is a great variety in the characters fighting styles. It's a fun fighting game, and one that's pretty easy to get into as well as having depth to master. It's not really tournament level but for regular Joes it's fun. But the problem is that it is still Dead or Alive. You still have the weird fetish-y baby faced female characters with massive sentient tits and an overall rubbishy art direction. And this time you have a proper story mode for the first time and it's really, really weird. It's like a Erotic Saturday Morning Cartoon... the plot is stupid, the characters interact weirdly... I don't know what to make of it... It really has stumped me.... I mean it was always stupid but totally throwaway, but this is some finely tuned trash. But yeah, that's Dead or Alive 5. Buy it.
-
The demo is out now. My thoughts are Vancouver did a good job. Not an excellent job, but just good job. Granted this is the first NHL on new-gen consoles. The pre-game show is scare photo realistic. I thought I was watching a game on NBC Sports. But during the game while the visuals are all glossy the character models look last-gen. At start-up you can select Easy (face buttons with Arcade style gameplay), Standard (Skill stick instead of face buttons and simulation gameplay), or custom. Enjoyed the demo, disappointed the EASHL mode will not be in the new-gen version. It would have been nice if EA knocked $10 off the price, but whatever. Will pick this up when I find it on cheaper sale.